Physiotherapy and Refugees Education Project Erasmus Project

Project Title

Physiotherapy and Refugees Education Project

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Inclusion – equity; Migrants’ issues

Project Summary

Background
The Physiotherapy and Refugees Education Project (PREP) addressed the mismatch between the competence of physiotherapists (PTs) and the complex rehabilitation needs of a growing population of refugees and migrants in Europe.

Project objectives
PREP aimed to build competencies of PTs working in rehabilitation services for refugees and migrants. This aim was reached by four objectives: 1) establishing core competencies for physiotherapists working with refugees, 2) preparing a curriculum, 3) designing and producing a digital course and 4) pilot, evaluate and revise the digital course.

Project participants
The project involved around 30 key informants (PTs, refugees and decission makers) and 8 spcialists for the identification of core competencie. The digital course was open for 150 participants, and we accepted151 for participation. The course is now open availbale for download at the canvas commons platform, meaning that all educational institutions using this platform can use the coruse in their educational programs. It is also open for participation via signing up (no fee). The course content is also given as a E-book (PREP E-book) that has been spread through our channels and also placed on our webside (https://prosjekt.hvl.no/prep/) and on the Erasmus results platform.

Project activities and results
The first step in the process was to write a scoping review on published research and experiences, to be able to identify knowledge gaps. This made a basis for interviews with key stakeholders (physiotehrapists, refugees and decisiion makers) in Norway, Sweden and The Netherlands, and for a consensus process involving a global group of specialists within physiotherapy and refugee health. These three activities made the basis for the IO1 main output, the consensus report. The consensus report was used to build a curriculum (IO2), that we used to design the didgital course (IO3). In addition, such a curriculum can be used by other institutuions to build own coruses, or to implement part of this curriculum in their own ongoing courses. In IO3 we designed and produced a digital course correseponding to 5ECTS on master degree level. This production inlcuded a international collaborative project where stakeholders on a global level was invited to share their knowledge and experiences. This was done to ensure relevance in the course and to ensure that we were updated on current discussions and global issues. The final stage of the project (IO4) was to pilot, evaluate and revise the course (IO4). We aimed at 150 participants, and closed the sign up at 151. Some course participants took the entire course and received a certificate, others took parts of it. During the project period we had monthly, digital meetings. During these meetings, we could update each other on the work, discuss issues on the way and keep track of the project. We planned for 6 transnational physical meetings, and managed to have 3 of these before covid-19 restrictions. The last meetings were digital, except for part 2 of the final meeting that was hybrid. We disseminated the project and our results during the entire project period and used social media, own channels, conferences and local and international meetings for this purpose.

Impact
Our aim was to create a course to give physiotherapists the possibility to build competence in working with refugees. This also included building a network for working with refugee health. The project had a direct impact on the participants in the course, the stakeholders providing information and experiences and on the project group, builidng competence and providing a platform for further collaborations. The network has grown larger than we expected it would, and we ended up having a high number of collaborative organisations, institutions, individuals and other projects. Although the official project ended in 2021, the project is still active. We have bachelor and master students working on the project, we have spin off projects and we used the project and network actively within our educations, This autumn, new organisations joined as collaborative partners with the aim to collaborate on bachelor theses. The PREP project has become an integrated part within our educational institutions. 4 spin-off projects can be mentioned: 1) A course in using interpreters in Norway. This was initiated by other organisations, and PREP was invited to join. The course is now used at several educational institutions in Norway. 2) Project on torture survivors. This started because of the PREP project and is now active with bachelor- and master students and research. 3) PREP IP, this is a direct continuation of PREP, where we aim to develop further for an interprofessional group. 4) HEQED, which is a project where we aim tp understand health equity and how to operationalise this within our educations. All these projects are based on the PREP network and beyond.

Project Website

http://www.hvl.no/en/project/622494/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 291811,75 Eur

Project Coordinator

HOGSKULEN PA VESTLANDET & Country: NO

Project Partners

• THE PROVOST, FELLOWS, FOUNDATION SCHOLARS & THE OTHER MEMBERS OF BOARD OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY & UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH NEAR DUBLIN
• STICHTING HOGESCHOOL VAN ARNHEM ENNIJMEGEN HAN
• Physiopedia Plus Ltd
• DUKE UNIVERSITY
• KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET
• BERGEN KOMMUNE